Monique Lunn, who has years of experience growing mushrooms, said people would do well to know the dangers of fungi poisoning as the weather cools and different species begin to shoot up.

“If you eat the wrong one, it kills you – there’s no two ways about it,” she told The Courier.

“You get arty types who go out foraging, but there’s so many foreign varieties now it’s hard to distinguish between edible species.

“It’s a horrible death if you eat the wrong one. There’s nothing they can do to reverse it, it shuts down your organs.”

Several deadly mushroom varieties can grow in bushland surrounding Ballarat.

Ideal conditions last year prompted the state’s chief health officer, Professor Charles Guest, to urge people to avoid picking mushrooms.

He singled out two species easily confused with edible varieties: the death cap and yellow-staining mushrooms.

"The death cap is extremely toxic and is responsible for 90 per cent of all mushroom poisoning deaths," Professor Guest said.

"Death can follow within 48 hours." 

It has a yellowish-green to olive-brown cap, with white gills and a white stem.

Meanwhile, the yellow-staining mushroom looks much like a field mushroom, which easily stains and bruises yellow.

"These are often gathered and mixed with field mushrooms, and can cause nausea, abdominal pain and diarrhoea in some people," Professor Guest said.

Mushrooms will begin to grow in coming weeks when the air cools but the soil remains warm.

A Chinese woman tragically died after eating death cap mushrooms picked in the Melbourne suburb of Box Hill in 2012.

If you or your child eat a poisonous mushroom, do not wait for symptoms to occur before seeking medical attention.

Call the Victorian Poisons Information Centre immediately on 131 126.